The Inclusive Networker
The Inclusive Networker is a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners, solopreneurs, and network marketers develop inclusive marketing and sales processes that help them authentically reach diverse audiences and subsequently grow large, diverse networks of customers, business partners, or team members.
The Inclusive Networker
Empathy, Curiosity, and Listening in Networking with Estela Barraza
Have you ever marveled at the resilience and ambition it takes to rise from humble beginnings to heights of achievement and influence? Estela Barraza's remarkable journey is a story that will not only inspire you but will also challenge your preconceived notions about the roots of professional success. Join us in this episode, where she shares her wisdom on wellness, the importance of passion in career choices, and how simple, farm-learned values can be powerful tools in the business world.
It's not every day that you meet someone who has turned a love for physical education into a mission to improve well-being in the workplace. Estela takes us through the transformative moments of her life, from her first PE class to advising leaders and teams on combating stress and promoting health. Her stories are a testament to the impact that aligning your career with your passions can have on your life and the lives of those around you. Her experiences demonstrate that embracing what you love can indeed translate into a fulfilling and impactful career.
In this episode, we talk about the following...
1. How empathy involves embracing someone else's point of view before asserting your own.
2. How to use curiosity as a powerful tool for understanding different cultures and perspectives.
3. How listening involves not only hearing words but also understanding the context and emotions behind them
You can find Estela on…
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/estelabarraza/
Website https://livinghealthyandactive.com/
Want more from Dr. Raymona?
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/drraymonahlawrence/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/drraymonahlawrence/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/drraymonahlawrence/
Thank you for listening!
~Dr. Raymona
Hey, hey, hey and welcome, welcome. Welcome to the Inclusive Networker Podcast. This podcast is the SOS. That's all the inside scoop on systems operations and the support for women and minority-owned businesses. We help small business owners and solo-preneurs become aware of gaps in knowledge or awareness that could be keeping their networks and businesses small. We help women and minority-owned businesses to be able to support women and minority-owned businesses. So if that's you, or you want to authentically support women and minority-owned businesses, you are in the right place. But be warned you will be challenged. But here's the thing you won't be judged. I'm your host, dr Ramona. I'm the owner of the fabulous software as a service that's SaaS agency called I Engage you. I'm a speaker, coach, consultant, public health professor, wife, mom and a fierce challenger of broken systems that keep people from reaching their highest potential. I am so excited to be with you on your journey to becoming an inclusive networker. Let's jump right in. Hey, hey and welcome, welcome.
Speaker 1:Welcome to this week's episode of the Inclusive Networker Podcast, and I am your host, dr Ramona. Who am I calling in today? It is Estella Baraza. I am so excited to bring Estella to you all today, so let me tell you a little bit about her. Estella Baraza is an esteemed speaker and a trusted advisor to healthcare service and educational organizations. With a career spanning over a decade in the exercise health and well-being industry, estella is committed to reaching a broader audience with her compelling narrative, empowering them to make informed, healthy choices daily and experience better well-being. So, estella, welcome, welcome. Welcome to the Inclusive Networker Podcast. How are you today?
Speaker 2:Oh, I am so good, Dr Ramona. It's so amazing to join you and to have a conversation with you today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you know, let's get started. Yeah, I always ask my guests this question, and that question is what is your lens? So tell us your background, your lens, what you bring to this conversation today.
Speaker 2:You know it's so interesting because I actually grew up in a farm and growing up in a farm is there's so many things that are around you You're out of nature there's animals, there's plants. We did our own harvest and then we actually ate a lot of the things that we were producing in the farm. So there's a lot of activity and a lot going on throughout the day, and what I learned was all about developing this sense of empathy, thinking about curiosity and then learning and how to really think about learning as a listening tool, for not only what I was experiencing in a farm, but also throughout my career, and I would say those three skills of empathy, curiosity and listening have truly helped me with this new lens that we're experiencing now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I hear a little bit of an accent. So tell us your, your heritage and your, your culture as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, I come from a Mexican, mexican background, so from Mexico, and Spanish speaking throughout my young years, and I actually did not learn English until I was 11 years old.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, I love that and I just love the diversity of the women that come on this podcast, and so I'm so super excited to have you. So, as you talk about this idea of empathy, curiosity and listening and how you grew up on the farm, tell us a little bit more about what the farm did to produce those characteristics in you the empathy, the curiosity and the listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know it's so interesting because growing up in here I was so used to milking cows every night.
Speaker 2:That was a routine, you know when often as your little kids, they're tasked with chores and think around the house either cleaning, taking out the trash, things like that. One of my chores was to milk a cow every single evening, and I was only about five years old since I can remember doing that. So imagine this big animal and they move around, they start kicking, sometimes they get distracted by either flies or other things happening, and all of that it's really thinking. Well, how can I have the right energy, right the empathy, the listening, really thinking about? Is a cow going to move as I'm milking the cow? And really, from that perspective it allowed me to think of how do I take that to either my career and my schooling and now helping my clients, from the empathy, the listening and also the curiosity.
Speaker 2:I will say the curiosity really came from growing up in a farm and thinking. You know we have we harvested a lot of vegetables and one of them was corn and going from just planting the seed and then you see it grows, you come and see and experience that. But then, as you're seeing it grow, and then you come shop it off and then one day you're enjoying it in a meal and really thinking the whole process and living it and experiencing. That was how it just helped me grow my curiosity mindset and really thinking about how can I learn how to implement this in other areas and bringing ideas into action or bringing ideas into reality, and so that has truly helped me with even going into networking space.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how did you go from the farm to speaking, being a health and wellness expert, going into corporate America? How did you make that journey?
Speaker 2:You know, when I was in sixth grade, I experienced something that was changed my life forever. So taking PE class was something that I truly admire my PE coach. It was the only class that I enjoyed taking in school and I really that's when I discovered my love for exercise and wellness and really thinking about exercise as a way to connect with others, to feel like I belonged and to truly feel that I felt seen in a way. So that was my way of showing up and I felt like I belong there, and it truly carried on into playing sports. And then, really, when it came down to going into college and choosing a major, I came in thinking about marketing. I had a sister who was doing accounting and she said well, if you want to go into college and do business, you might want to think about marketing, because you have more of that lens of being in front of people and thinking about really speaking to others and sharing ideas. And so she said, you might not like accounting, but you might like marketing.
Speaker 2:I went into a marketing class and I just did not enjoy. I said I don't want to see myself sitting behind a computer all the time and not interacting with people. And so I came and stumbled upon kinesiology, which would draw me to just pursue that career in exercise and wellness, and I have stuck. And that's when I connected the dots and I said you know, when I was in sixth grade my only class that I enjoyed was PE. So that carried me on and I'm still loving it now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so interesting fun fact my bachelor's degree is in kinesiology as well.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing so exercise, science and kinesiology.
Speaker 1:yes, so love, love, love. Health, wellness, fitness. Have done all kinds of exercise modalities and teach yoga and all of those things, and so totally on the same page. Yes, I love you on that. And so, as you were moving into the fitness space and wellness, tell us a little bit about what you do now. So what is your career and what types of things are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So now my whole purpose has been focusing on how do I empower leaders to either for themselves to ease work-related stress and experience better well-being and for them to also have that ripple effect for their team members, and it goes down from helping them with their organizational strategy to how to think about their own well-being and then how to think about their well-being of their team members, and so anywhere from programming to thinking about doing a one-time speaking engagement that truly just comes in, inspiring and taking action and drafting that seed into how they can start guiding the next part of their well-being and their strategy in their organization.
Speaker 2:And so that has been an evolution in my career that before I used to. When I first graduated, I actually started doing a personal training business and I would work with leaders either political news personalities here in the local and thinking about really training them specifically, and I got to learn a lot about their organization and I always thought about how can I help more people? And people already trust the organization that they work with and the leader that they work with. So how can their leader also empower them to experience better well-being? Because there are many people that are experiencing work related stress and their leader has. If they have a good relationship with their leader, that helps them to ease their stress a lot better than not having a good relationship with their leader. So that was one of my big drivers now.
Speaker 1:So, even taking that a little bit further, when you're talking about the stress and we're talking about health and wellness, I know that you move that into helping with the Hispanic population in a network marketing company that you were in previously and so with that population you help to with gut health, with that Hispanic population. So tell us a little bit about how you moved into helping the Hispanic population specifically, because I know we talk about lots of different cultures and groups, but I'm really excited that we can talk about the Hispanic population today.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I am Hispanic and really thinking a lot of times I get asked how are you vegan, how are you plant-based, how are you gluten-free and how have you just kept up with exercise and really being active and living this lifestyle? And I became so engaged with a network marketing company here locally in Arizona and really thinking from the consulting standpoint, because I just love their products and I think many of us or many of you that are listening right now, you fall in love with this company because of the products and really implementing into your lifestyle and how that has shifted your health or your experience with whatever area that that company focuses on and in particular with another company that I joined, more in the corporate space, it was more coming in and supporting them in how they can launch these products that are health-related because of my health background, thinking about how we promote that and really share them with the Hispanic population so it was a new market and thinking about how to implement what I mentioned in the beginning.
Speaker 2:The empathy, the curiosity, the listening truly came into play when I was interacting with the associates and as we call them, and really thinking about how are they ambassadors into the product that they already love, but how do we help them promote it or share with others? And it came down to utilizing those three things from that perspective, but also the education and a lot of times when we experience it, sometimes we don't know how to talk about it, but I would say you know what your story is and you know how it has helped you and that's all you have to share and then utilize the tools that are given to you. So a lot came down to us helping them develop those tools as either a video, a worksheet, a PowerPoint presentation or really helping them saying here's how you can say three things about the product that can relate into how you have experienced it in the past.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:And so, like you said, going back to the empathy, the curiosity, the listening no-transcript, listening to the individuals who are actually in that culture so that they find what it is that they enjoy about the product and then they can relate to other people within their culture to help them to see the benefits as well.
Speaker 1:And so give us some practical tips then, based on how you help to that company to move that product into the Hispanic market. If we were wanting to do that and you know we might not have the experience that you do, but when you think about moving things into different markets and into different cultures, what are the types of things that we need to be thinking about? What are the different types of things that we would possibly do when we're maybe we're on a team and we have a lot of different cultures in that team and we're all selling the same product, but we've got to get it out and make and help make all of our, our cultures and the different individuals on our team successful. So what are some tips that you can give us for that?
Speaker 2:Yes, I will say the number one thing that you can think about, especially with the Hispanic market or any other culture, is building that trust. So building the trust starts with you knowing one person in that culture and they might already trust you. They might already be following you, they might already be interacting with you in some kind of way and they might already trust you because they are seeing what has this product or the type of lifestyle that you're living and how that is just truly impactful for you, and they might already seen that, but they haven't truly shared that with you or communicated that with you. So, thinking about how, who is somebody that I already know in this culture, in this group, that can truly I trust and they trust me, and or that I can build more trust than before I introduce the product, and so when you introduce the product, they already are in love with you, so they trust you to even say, hey, I'm going to try this product myself, and then they are the ones that become the ambassador for you to start sharing it with other people.
Speaker 2:So now the next thing I will say, after trust, is really thinking about the education, and I always think about education as a way of hey, we listen, we are empathetic and we also share information, and I always think education is our gateway to the next level. As we learn, as we know more than we do, better right, and so one of the main things is what are some tools that you can provide for them? And what we did in the network marketing company that I work with is that we translated the tools. So, if you are in a company currently, look at the tools that are available in that particular language, for this example is Spanish, so what are the tools that are available in Spanish? Do they have a Facebook group or other groups that people that are joining now can join? Because when we think about, hey, I'm going to try this product, it's an ongoing process, we don't want them to just try it for the first 30 days or one day.
Speaker 2:We want them to try it and then start seeing how other people are maybe utilizing the product, experiencing it, creating that community component and then going from there. So it's really thinking about trust, thinking about education and then think about building community for them. So and the education and the community has to be in the language that they understand and that they're more comfortable with.
Speaker 1:I love that. So trust, education, building community right, that's how you become an inclusive networker, because you're helping to build the community. And so I know a lot of times people are saying, well, okay, I have this one person, but I'm not as familiar with the community. How do we make sure that we're really familiar with communities that we might not be a part of? And it doesn't look like we're being inauthentic, like we're just trying to grow our business, and that's why we're having this relationship with this individual yes you know as being an inclusive network, as many of your listeners are probably already are is really.
Speaker 2:And how do they spread that? When you're asking that questions is really thinking, doing one single thing? So you have that one friend, the one person, the trustee, are ready and one of the best ways is join them, have them invite you to either a birthday party or maybe they have, uh, saying hey, there's this community event going on or this event going on, and join them in that and just go and observe and be curious and listen and almost participating, just by being there and having your ears, your eyes, everything open to see it. What can I learn from this community, instead of coming in and truly doing all the teaching and educating in the beginning? So I talked about trust first and really thinking from that perspective. So when you go, it's just show up and and really be embedded into the, the space that you're in.
Speaker 1:So just get invited to something that has that is already happening yeah, I think that that is such good advice, because often we say that we have this friend, uh, that is of a different culture, but we never have actually interacted in the culture.
Speaker 1:We haven't done gone to events, we haven't gone to, uh, church or however they worship, we haven't gone to things that are specific to their culture. And then it's like, well, yeah, I have that one friend, but but really, you know, how much have you done? How much do you really know about their community? And so I think that's the important piece that we often miss is how have I not just said in lip service that I am friends with this person, but how have I actually interacted and not bought my own opinions, my own perspectives in? And I've really gone in with empathy, with curiosity and listening. I love those three because I think it all boils back down to those right the empathy, the curiosity, the listening when we go to visit people and when we try to learn about other cultures or other perspectives. So that's so good yeah.
Speaker 2:It has truly helped my career, and especially being in the networking space for many years, and not only as an ambassador, consultant, but also from the corporate perspective, and it truly implementing those three main things and I said, you know, I learned this when I was a little girl, so and those are just values that can continue with anything that we do.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, as I'm thinking through these three terms, I want to really level set for the audience to think about, not only what are the terms, but what do they really mean to you, because we've talked about them a lot. So, when you think about the term empathy, what does that mean really in action, right, not just in word, but what does it mean when you're being empathetic, what does it mean when you're being curious, and how are you actually listening, so that we don't just have the terms but we're actually able to take those action steps? So give us some things that we can really start to do to truly be authentically empathetic and curious and to listen.
Speaker 2:Yes, and those are things that we do every single day. When we start thinking about how can I just be better, right and thinking of what are my values, and I start embracing those every single day. So being empathetic is truly about embracing. How am I embracing somebody else's point of view before I implement my own, before I put in my own into what they're sharing? So somebody in a meeting, somebody can again, when you're sharing a product, they can start sharing a lot about why they may love it, why they might not, why they want to be interested in the product, why they might not.
Speaker 2:And instead of giving them your own perspective, you just listen to them, you're becoming empathetic and you ask questions. So a lot of times I always say begin to ask questions. And that's going back into the curiosity now and thinking about how can I really think about learning and being curious and continue to ask questions so that I can just learn a little bit more about this person. So thinking about from their perspective instead of just my own. And then when I think about listening, listening goes beyond just being in front of somebody and listening to their perspective.
Speaker 2:A lot of times is really learning about the culture, learning about the product. How can I present this product in a way that will resonate with the person that I'm introducing it to? What are their goals, what are their aiming, what are their aspirations, what are their values? And so when I present this product, it becomes more of a benefit for them and not so much that has been a benefit for me. And so, thinking about them and thinking, how can I approach each situation in a way that is almost personalized, but we're still utilizing the same three values when we're approaching each of them?
Speaker 2:So, good so good.
Speaker 1:So, estella, how do we stay in touch with you? I know that the inclusive network is going to. The inclusive network, or community, is going to want to stay in touch with you, learn about the things that you have coming up, the things that you have going on. So, what do you have coming up that we can plug into and how do we stay in touch with you?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I am all about sharing tips and education and different perspectives on how people in general and all of you that are listening how you can truly ease the work-related stress, and it can be from your entrepreneur journey.
Speaker 2:We all experience. We're experiencing a huge amount of burnout right now, in whatever area, right. So, thinking about how it can ease your stress and experience better well-being by doing one thing every single day that can help you with that, and you can see all those videos and all everything that I share on my LinkedIn, which is at Estella Barraza, and you can find everything else that I'm doing there.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, we will definitely stay in touch with you and thank you for being a guest on the Inclusive Networker podcast and thank you all for listening to this episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. Thanks again to our guest, estella Baraza. We are so excited to have had you on the show, estella. You can find her information in the show notes and we will see you on the next episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast. Bye, and that wraps up another episode of the Inclusive Networker podcast.
Speaker 1:I want to express my sincere gratitude to you, our listeners, for joining us on this journey of learning and growth. Your support and engagement are truly, truly appreciated. But before we go, I have something special for our business owners out there. If you're looking to take your business to new heights, I've created a game changer just for you, introducing I Engage you. It is the SOS, that is, the systems, operations and support for your business. It is the all-in-one platform designed to ignite explosive growth for women and minority-owned businesses.
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